Rope or belt drive for drying cylinders and the like



y G. DOD

ROPE 0R BELT DRIVE FOR DRYING CYLINDERS AND THE LIKE Filed Sept. 28. 1925 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 ti; I 1 I MMZZZYF May 3,1927. 1 G DOD 1,627,018-

ROPE 0R BELT DRIVE FOR DRYING CYLINDERS AND THE LIKE Filed Sept. 28. 1925 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 \Q N m \Q May a, 19. .7.v 1.627.018

G. DOD

ROPE OR BELT DRIVE FOR DRYING CYLINDERS AND THE LIKE Filed Sept..28, 1925 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 May 3, 1927.

G. 009 ROPE OR BELT DRIVE FOR I DRYING CYLINDERS AND THE LIKE Filed Sept. 28, 1925 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Patented May 3, 19 27.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GERALD DOD, OF SOUTHPORT, ENGLAND.

ROPE OR BELT DRIVE FOR DRYIN G CYLINDERS AND THE LIKE.

Application filed September 28, 1925, Serial No. 59,239, and in Great Britain October 23, 1924.

This invention rel ers'to a new or lII1 proved rope (or belt) drive for multi-cylinder drying machines and the like. In particular the invention has reference to drying machines, the cylinders of which are arranged in rows and lie close together, the axis of each cylinder of one row lying opposite the adjacent peripheries of two cylinders in the next row. The cylinders of such drying machines are usually driven through either cast iron spur wheels or bevel wheels and pinions, and the power required to drive a complete machine, especially a large machine comprising to 40 cylinders, is considerable. This is partly due to the gears, which are seldom of true tooth form and rarely mesh accurately, and partly, it not chiefly, due to the power absorbed in overcoming the friction of the packing in the glands, which are tightly packed to prevent leakage or' steam, etc., around the cylinder trunnions.

By the adoption oi? self-aligning doll-head bearings of the kind forming the subjectof my Patent No. 1325535, granted August 15, 1922, using anti-friction balls or rollers, and with which the resistance to rotation of the cylinders is reduced to a minimum, a'

of such lower cylinder the rope or ropes pass around the pulley ot' the next upper cylinder, the rope or ropes thus wrapping around the pulley :tor a considerable portion of their peripheries, and thereby causing a considerable to and fro bending of the ropes as they r travel forward, which bending, besides causingrapid deterioration ot the r0 es, results.

in extra power being absorbed. ith the one rope or each rope passing around all the pulleys as described, the pulleys cannot be other than of a diameter less than that of the usual gear wheels. 'lo merely thread the rope or ropes between the rows of pulleys the ropes.

and to rely on the small are of contact to rotate the pulleys, with the pulleys limited in size and overlap, necessitates an excessive heavy tension and a consequent shortening of the lite of the rope or ropes.

This invention has for its object to provide an arrangement of rope, (or belt) drive whereby repeated sharp bending and excesnumber of not less than three sections, the

pulleys of each section lying out of the plane or those of each other section, and each section of pulleys having its own driving .rope or belt). Further, the pulleys of alternate sections-are on alternate odd and even numbers of cylinders, and the pulleys of each intermediate section are on alternate even and odd numbers of consecutive cylinders. Usually, there will not be more than three or five sections of pulleys.

The invention mayv be applied to double row, or single row machines.

In the case of a double row machine the alternate pulleys of each section will be in one rowand the intermediate pulleys ot' the same section will be in the other row.

Each rope is driven by a power shaft and pulley which may be common to all the other ropes, and each rope is fed to the machine by a further pulley, which also may be common to all the ropes. The return part of each rope is held in tension by a weighted guide pulley, which may be commonto all By consecutive cylinders is meant the c n '1: es 'cna 'oh ders n the mv r eoider of 0 t ct t 1 through the machine. By a. section of pulleys or cylinders is meant those pulleys or cylinders driven by the same rope. V

Upon the accompanying drawing Fig. 1 illustrates aside View, and

, 'Fig. 2 a plan of one example of the imlowed by the material to be dried in passing til) proved multiple rope drive as applied to a drying machine having two horizontal rows of cylinders.

Fig. 3 illustrates a side view, and

Fig. 4 a plan of another example of the in'iproved multiple rope drive as applied to the same type of machine.

Fig. 5 illustrates theapplication of the invention to what is known as a combined vertical and horizontal type of inulti-cylii'ider drying machine.

Figs. 6 and 7 illustrate further examples of the invention.

in the exan'iple of drive shown in Figs. 1 and 2, only 13 cylinders are shown, 6 in the top row, and T in the bottom row. Usually there are a larger inunber of cylinders and in some cases as many as 30 to 40. The fabric or material to be dried, enters at the right hand end of the machine viewed from the side shown in Fig. 1, and the cylinders are rotated .in the direction oi the ar- =rows, the fabric or material to be dried first 1) "'ing around a cylinder in the bottom row and then around a cylinder in the top row. The cylinders are numbered 1 to 13 respectively. To each cylinder trunnion is applied a rope (or belt) pulley, and for the purpose or the drive the cylinders and pulleys are arranged in odd numbers of sections with the pulleys of each section in the same plane, 'but out of the plane of those of each other section; There will not be less than three sections, in order that the pulleys may be 01' a larger diameter than the distance between the axes of consecutive cylinders. And with the pulleys ot the three sections applied-to consecutive cylinders, the pulleys of the respective sections will be on alternate odd and even cylinders, or even and odd cylinders, according to the number of the section. A separate rope is provided for the pulleys of each section.

in F 1 and 2, there are three sections of pulleys, and three ropes. The three sections of pulleys are marked a, b, 0, see Fig. 2. The ropes are marked a 6 0 The three ropes are driven by a rope driving pulley (Z common to all, and the return halt of each rope passes around guide pulleys e, j and over a tensioning pulley g common to all the other ropes.

3 The pulleys of each section are of a diameter larger than the cylinders, in order that the upper row and lower row of cylinders shall lap with a line drawn centrally between the cylinder axes, see Fig. 1, and also in order that the desired drive ol' each section may be eli'ected by the rope passing between the pulleys, instead 0t around said pulleys, the lap of the pulleys atl ording the required are of contact for enabling the pulleys to be rotated without-putting too great a strain on the rope.

r The rope a impinges against and drives the pulleys of cylinders 1, l, 7, 10, 13. The rope b impinges against and drives the pulleys of cylinders 2, 5, 8 and 11. The rope 0 impinges against and drives the pulleys of cylinders (i, 9 and 12.

in Figs. :3 and t the drive is divided into live sections and there are live ropes, which are designated 7L [L2, if, h, and lbs. The rope hi drives the pulleys of cylinders 1, (S and 11; the rope d drives the pulleys of cylinders 2, 7 and 12; the rope drives the pulleys ol' cylinders 53, 8 and 13; the rope h drives the pulleys of cylinders land J, and the rope h drives the pulleys 01' cylinders 5 and 10.

in Fig. 5, the drive is divided into three sections, and there are three ropes, idler pulleys j, being provided to allow for the ropes passing from the cylinders lying in vertical planes to the cylinders lying in horizontal planes, and vice versa. The idler pulleys are preferably rotatably mounted on the trunnions ol the two end cylinders of the bottom horizontal row, and while one rope engages the pulleys ot the end cylinders, the other two ropesengage the idler pullevs. The several ropes are driven by the power pulley Z: (common to all) and are guided and tensioned by the pulleys Z, m respectively. The same letters of reference for the sections of pulleys and for the ropes used in respect to Figs. 1 and 2 are used in respect to Fig. 5.

'r'ilthough prelferring to ellect the drive by passing the rope oi each section between the pulleys oi the section, and to rely on the are of contact: ot the rope produced by the lap oi? the pulleys, the drive may be etl'ected by passing the rope of each section over and under the pulleys of the section, see Fig. (3. In this case, the material to be dried will pass through the machine from left to right. or in the same general direction as ilfollo'wed by the ropes.

The invention may also be applied to multi-cylii'ider drying machines in which there is only a singlerow of cylinders and the coi'isecutive cylinders rotate in opposite directions, see Fig. 7.

in each example-it will be seen that the sections ol' pulleys are odd in number, and that the pulleys of alternate sections are alternately on odd and even nun'ibers ot' consecutive cylinders and those 01" the intermediate section (or sections) are alternately on even and odd numbers of consecutive cylinders.

When one of the sections oi? the machine comprises only a Few cylinders, and the other sections are relatively large, a rope and pulley tor the small section may be dispensed with, and reliance be placed on the material to be dried to rotate the small section oi cylinders.

- The cylinder trunnions will preferably be ill) Hill

iii

ill

supported in doll heads made according to my Patent No. 1,425,635, but it Will be understood that they may be supported in any other and suitable doll heads or bearings.

Although preferring to drive the several ropes or all the sections by a power shaft and pulley common to all, they may be driven by more than one shaft and pulley, and even one for each rope or section.

By means of this invention the following advantages are obtainable, first, the size of the pulleys on the cylinders can be increased beyond that of the usual size of gear wheel or rope pulley, thus'd-ecreasing the pulling effort required on the rope; s cond, the speed of the rope is increased by using larger pulleys which further enables smaller diam eter ropes being used to transmit the necessary driving eli'ort, third; any excessive strain on the ropes is avoided by using larger pulleys and having separate ropes driving se 'iarate sections of the machine; TFOLHTi'li, the lifetime of the ropes is considerably prolonged and should one rope break, it does not necessarily entail stopping the machine and production, as a section of the cylinders driven on my anti-friction doll heads has been found to be sui'iicient to lcec'p the machine running, and fifth, a steady and siient drive is obtained, enabling the cylinders to be run at increased speeds without running the risk of damage to the fabrics being dried, either through dirt or oil being thrown, or by iron rust from small particles of metal as occurs when gear wheel drives are used, and the known injurious effect on the fabric resulting from the uneven motion of the gear teeth is eliminated.

What I claim is 1. In multi-cylinder drying wherein the cylinders lie close together, and the material to be dried pass-es under and over consecutive cylinders, a pulley on the axis of each cylinder, each of the pulleys being of one size and of larger diameter than the distance between the axes of the said ()(lliEItKjll'ti'VG cylinders, and belts for driving plane, but out of the plane of those of each machines, 7

other section, all of. such pulleys being of larger diameter than the distance between the axes of consecutive cylinders, and belts for driving the said pulleys and cylinders. 3. In, multi-cylinder drying machines, having cylinders arranged close together, an odd number-of not less than three sections of cylinders, pulleys on the axes of the cylinders, the pulleys of each section lying in the same plane, but out of the plane of each other section, the pulleys of alternate sections being mounted alternately on odd and even numbers of consecutive cylinders, and those of each intermediate section being mounted alternately on even and odd sections of consecutive cylinders, a belt for each section of pulleys and cylinders, and means for driving the several belts, as set forth.

4:. In multi-cylinder drying machines, having cylinders aranged close together, an odd number of not less than three sections of cylinders, pulleys on the axes of the cylinders, of a diameter larger than the distance between the axes of consecutive cylinders, the pulleys of each section lying in the same plane, but out of the'plane of each other section, the pulleys of alternate sections being mounted alternately on odd and even numbers of consecutive cylinders, and those of each intermediate sect1on being mounted alternately on even and odd sections of consecutive cylinders, a belt for each section of pulleys and cylinders, and means for drivin the several belt-s, as set forth.

5. In n'iulti-cylinder drying machines having cylinders arranged close together, an odd number of not less than three sections of cylinders, pulleys on the axes of the cylinders, of a diameter larger than the distance between the axes ofconsecutive cylinders, the pulleys of each section lying in the same plane, but out of the plane of each other section, the pulleys of alternate sections being mounted alternately on odd and even numbers of consecutive cylinders, and those of each intermediate section being mounted alternately on even and odd sections of consecutive cylinders, a belt for each section of pulleys and cylinders, a pow-er shaft, and a pulley thereon common to all the belts, andmeans for guiding and tensioning the belts, as set forth. 7

In testimony whereof I have signed in name to this specification.

GERALD DOD. 

